What is 'boycott' ? By definition, a boycott is a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest, usually of political reasons.
Today, many countries of the world urge their people to boycott Israel. Boycotts of Israel are economic and political campaigns that seek a selective or total cutting of ties with the State of Israel. Such campaigns constitute one tactic used by those who challenge the legitimacy of Israel's existence, or oppose Israeli territorial claims in the West Bank or Israel's policies or actions towards the Palestinians over the course of the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The question is, should we boycott or do not boycott Israel ? I think we as Muslims should start boycotting Israel's products from now on. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. We as Muslims should be helping our brothers and sisters in Palestine instead of helping Israel by funding the war. Many of us unconsciously do not know that we are officially helping Israel financially by buying Israel products.
Economy is essential in the time of war. By boycotting Israel we can weaken Israel's economy system hence weaken their fund for war on Palestine. Because of the boycott, certain products which were ubiquitous elsewhere in the world, such as Pepsi, McDonald's and most Japanese cars were not to be found in in Israel until the boycott began waning in the late 1980s. A similar situation existed in the Arab world which boycotted the products of companies that were selling in Israel as in the case of Coca-Cola.
As for the boycotting, we should cover three areas. Firstly, products and services that originate in Israel (referred to as the primary boycott and still enforced in many Arab states). Second, businesses that operate in Israel (the secondary boycott). Last but not least,businesses that have relationships with other businesses trading in Israel (the tertiary boycott). Officially, those are the areas of boycott Arab League covers. We also should practicing these parameters of boycott process for our country, Malaysia. I do believe these actions will effect Israel and any countries supporting the Israel such as United States. There are many non-Israel brands that we can use for our daily life.
In the nutshell, I really think we should boycott Israel as our protest because of the regime terrorism on Palestine. I encourage the application and adoption of boycotting Israel into our daily life regardless of our religion and race.
Written by,Syarifah Farhanah Binti Syed Abd Ghani Al-Yahya
